Monthly Archives: October 2012

Truth be told, we eat more red meat as as a flavoring in a pasta sauce or a stir-fry than we do as the straight-up center of attention. However, Lamb Steaks with Herbs and Caramelized Garlic make a great indulgence, especially with the Puglian wrinkle of using olive oil scented with rosemary, sage and thyme instead of a butter sauce. The aroma of lemon, herbs and olive oil is a Proustian ticket to the sun-drenched Adriatic coast of your choice–and you’ll definitely want some bread to mop everything up.

Making your own shaped pasta like cavatelli or orecchiette (as versus rolling out noodles) is so gleeful, so hilariously liberating, that I can only compare it to being a little kid running naked down the street hollering, “Look at me! Look at me!” It’s just that great. Er… what? You never ran outside naked as a kid? Really? Never? Well, sounds to me like somebody’s got some serious catching up to do. No, don’t take your clothes off–we’re all adults now–the naked-in-the-street developmental train left the station some time ago. But that’s okay–you can still make Homemade Cavatelli with Tomato-Eggplant Sauce. You don’t believe me now, but if you share the joy and invite a friend to help, a friend with a bottle of wine, after seeing each other’s first dozen cavatelli, hilarity will ensue. Nobody’s cavatelli are bad–some are just different–and you do get better, fast.

As well ask, Does the world need another saxophone riff? Another short story? Another poem? Of course it does. Look, if you’re filleting fugu or sautéing false morels (not advised), you want a recipe nazi with hairy calves and an I summitted K2 without O2 tattoo. But panna cotta? Ah, no. Panna cotta is a melody that invites riffing, if only because sometimes no matter how wonderful the last iteration, the simple tune of cooked cream cries out for variation, a what if . . . and because sometimes things just don’t work the way the recipe says they should, so you need to improvise. That’s how we ended up with Goat’s Milk Panna Cotta with Star Anise and Grape Compote.

Okay, so this is the week without a regular posting because one or both of us was out gallivanting about the Old World. In the absence of a post from us, I have a few recommendations for recent goodies from other blogs that I follow. Nothing really connects them, except my idiosyncratic taste and great writing.